Employers discriminate against long-term unemployed: reports

A number of long-term, unemployed people in Stamford, Connecticut revealed to CBS' 60 Minutes how they have been discriminated by the job market for being out of work, resulting in questions as to whether they would be employed ever again.

"There's no doubt," worker Frank O'Neil told reporter Scott Pelley. "I mean, I've seen it in print, whether it's some newspaper ads or online during those types of advertisements, I've actually seen, 'If you are unemployed, you need not apply.'"

O'Neil added: "Just look at the web. You see the phrase everywhere: 'Must be currently employed.' Businesses can't legally discriminate by age, race or sex, but there's a new minority group now, the long term unemployed."

Seeking assistance, the people interviewed by 60 Minutes turned to the state unemployment office for needed job training. Office president Joe Carbone expressed the psychological challenges of the unemployed people he's encountered.

"The change is the mind," Carbone said. "That two years of unemployment erodes your self-confidence, your self-esteem. It separates you from your profession, your education, whatever you might have done previously. There's all sorts of things. It causes divorces. It causes problems with children."

Despite jobless claims reaching a four year low last week, there are still over 7.6 million people claiming unemployment benefits.

WATCH: Video from CBS, which was broadcast on February 19, 2012.